Max Gruff

@maximilliangruff.bsky.social

Royal college of art graduate, querying my first novel, also working on new WIP

#questpit is on bluesky too?!?😱 Her life for a dream—that's the forgotten bargain Isla made with the god of sleep. 🩸Dracula, but immoral gods 💀Find you in every lifetime 🫀Dealing w/ Trauma & Abuse via Body Horror 🩶You came, you called 🥀Contemp, Gothic Fantasy & Historical themes #Q #A #LF #R #H

Title image: An Agent’s Guide to Where Heaven’s Teeth Grow; a horror-romantic literary fiction complete at 74,000 words.The pitch:
Her life for a dream.
That's the forgotten bargain Isla made with the god of sleep.

Haunted by an enamoring, cruel god and the gruesome nightmares of her past, Isla must sacrifice her life to save her friends from a mysterious viral plague, all while ensnared into more bargains to sustain the god's vitality.Snippet of the opening chapter:
PART ONE: BONE OF MY BONES
CHAPTER ONE

We spend our lives protecting our bodies from the rot we chase in death. But there is peace in decay. It marks the quiet end to a life that’d finally perfected the art of letting go.
Death comes for us all. It’s life we should fear.
“Get in your room, Isla.”
My wrist burned where my uncle squeezed, nausea clawing up my throat. He grasped my fist and held it in front of his face, my bones aching from the pressure.
He towered over me, his eyes glazed over.Comps & Vibes—cover photos of Ethel Caine album, Rhapsodic, Dracula, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.
Quote: “His voice was a candlelit dinner, a raw slab of still-bleeding meat awaiting to both kill and satisfy.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️BOOK GIVEAWAY⭐️⭐️⭐️ To celebrate the return of #Shetland detective series I am giving away 2 signed copies of Ponies at the Edge of the World with 2 wish bottles with Shetland shells or seaglass. To enter just like, share and comment on this post

Image shows hands with blue nail Polish holding a copy of Ponies at the Edge of the World

So tricksters net, the project by @playframe.co.uk and Loco Ludus, was an interesting game design exchange project linking German students with Welsh students to help build and define the world of Tricksters Net, a TTRPG. I was only brought on to make some inspirational touchstone art

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For anyone who only knows me as someone querying a novel, there have been times when I’ve worked as a concept artist and illustrator on various projects and I’ll probably be sharing a few of these over the next few days